For centuries now, paper knives, letter openers and page turners have been favored objects of artists. As with opera glasses, snuff and opium containers, artists always turn useful objects into beautiful works of art.

The lovely story of paper knives is woven into storytelling itself. When books were first created, they were printed on large sheets of paper, folded into book size and bound. The reader would slice open the pages with a small paper knife. Imagine the thrill of slicing open that first page to discover the stories inside!

Similarly, page turners were used to turn the pages of books. Books were expensive luxuries and dirt and oil from hands would damage the paper, so page turners were used.